I was getting excited when I saw the temperature climbing. You wouldn't believe how different my preferment Lehmann dough tasted, when made into a pizza. Sure wish I could get that same taste at market. The pie changed from a NY style to a Neapolitan style.

The recent set-up did work better with the steel plate, but it got too hot on the firebricks, for my tastes. The first pizza had too much char on the bottom and I almost burnt the sides while rotating. I will think about what to try next. Maybe a smaller size pizza to see what happens, and lower the bake temperature some.

I decided this morning since I was going to make tomato sauce today, I would give my BBQ grill another go, at trying to make a pizza. Steve had given me some wood at market on Tuesday, to try out in the BBQ grill. I just mixed the dough this morning with a wooden spoon, let it rest, and then kneaded it a little and let it rest again. I used Caputo Pizzeria flour this time as the flour. I only made the hydration 58% because I didnít want this dough sticky at all, in case the BBQ grill wouldnít work out in some way. I only used flour, salt, ADY, and water in the formula.

The BBQ grill did get to high temperatures today and the bake was fast. I really like seeing the flames from the pieces of wood Steve gave me.

Pictures in sequence of events as they happened, from mix, tomatoes, to finished pizza.

Wow Norma,Your oven-in-grill setup seems to produce some nice climate for a crispy yet juicy pie. Myself i recently acquired a gas bbq to start baking pies at a much higher temperature.How long did you bake them ? What was the rim like ?

Yesterday i baked one in my bbq, inspired by all the guys here in the forum, like you, craig, tampa and others. Will post some pics about my set-up as soon as i am allowed as a newbie

Happy wfo-in-a-bbq-ing !Martin

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Norma, craig, tampa... Do you think the admin would allow a bbqgrill category to see all the post bundledmabout how to achieve max temp from the top with overall high temperature... See some pretty inspiring constructions out there... However dont really wanna modify my bbq in a way like cutting it... Should not forget i persuaded my wife to a gas grill also with drawing the picture of a juice steak for her, butmhaving a nepolitan pie in my mind...hehe

Martin

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Glad to hear you acquired a gas BBQ grill to start making pies. The pie I made yesterday, was finished in a little over about 1 Ĺ minute I think, but I didnít time it. The whole pizza was good (was a 10Ē), but my dough wasnít the best. I really just mixed up a dough quick, so I could try the BBQ grill again.

Craig and Tampaís BBQ grill set-ups are better than mine, and do produce better pies. I would go with an infra-red back burner this year, but my friend Steve, is going to help me convert my Weber (22Ē) into a pizza oven. Steve, is soon going to start working on my Weber grill.

Will be interested in seeing your pies made in your BBQ set-up. I think you have enough posts to be able to post your pictures.

In reference to your question about having a thread about having a BBQ grill category, I think that would take someone a long time, for someone to be able to find all the posts, then put them into one thread. Each different BBQ grill set-up will have its own unique problems with getting even top and bottom heat, at least in my opinion. If you look at the Weber grill threads, you can see each person had to figure out what worked best for them.

If you are planning on baking your pizzas in a regular BBQ grill set-up, then I would look at Craigs or Tampaís threads. There are also other threads by other members, where they also had decent results.

I had to chuckle when you posted you persuaded your wife to get a BBQ grill with juicy steaks in mind, but you were thinking about Neapolitan pies.

Hallo Norma,There is so much information here and all the pizzaholics like myself trying to achieve the idea of the pie in mind. I will check more of the posts to see how the fellows succeed to keep the heat inside. My bbq shows more than 800F at full throttle and my stone still had 600F 15 mins after the last bake. So the stone heat also for me does not be the problem, but the top heat.I baked 3mins, then top and bottom seem to be balanced.however i am not really happy yet with the taste and texture of the rim, so need to change and try one of the 100 variables at a time Also unfortunately here i cannot get those great ingredients Like the caputo pizza flour, fresh yeast, san marzanos and a nice mozz. At this point maybe this also doesnt matter so muchMy wife is patient, but i get this certain look when it is the 3rd weekend in a row we had pizza and she cannot seem to understand that we need to stop shopping because i urgently need to go home and ball my dough

It seems i cannot attach a pic to this post on the ipad, so i try my luck soon again and post the pictures,of the setup.

Cheers. Martin

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Hallo Norma,There is so much information here and all the pizzaholics like myself trying to achieve the idea of the pie in mind. I will check more of the posts to see how the fellows succeed to keep the heat inside. My bbq shows more than 800F at full throttle and my stone still had 600F 15 mins after the last bake. So the stone heat also for me does not be the problem, but the top heat.I baked 3mins, then top and bottom seem to be balanced.however i am not really happy yet with the taste and texture of the rim, so need to change and try one of the 100 variables at a time Also unfortunately here i cannot get those great ingredients Like the caputo pizza flour, fresh yeast, san marzanos and a nice mozz. At this point maybe this also doesnt matter so muchMy wife is patient, but i get this certain look when it is the 3rd weekend in a row we had pizza and she cannot seem to understand that we need to stop shopping because i urgently need to go home and ball my dough

It seems i cannot attach a pic to this post on the ipad, so i try my luck soon again and post the pictures,of the setup.

Good to hear after the 3 minute bake, that your top and bottom seem to be balanced. If you arenít happy with the taste and texture of the rim, you will need to experiment maybe with different variables or what kind of flour is available to you. Craig had get success using a AP flour.

You made me chuckle again, when you said you wife doesnít understand you need to get home and ball your dough again.

I donít have a ipad, so I can't help you with how to post pictures with one. Maybe another member with an ipad will see this post and help you, or you could post a new thread on how to post pictures from an ipad. If you could post pictures under your thread, maybe someone could help you with your BBQ-set-up.

Hi Norma,thanks for the hints and i was digging through a lot of threads about using the high heat possible in a bbq grill.My wife is asian and not necessarily a pizza freak, but I got her a bit into it and she understands it is my hobby since i am a teenager, even never intensified it like now. However, it is not easy to get the understanding from an outsider, that proofing dough is a science and we need to plan the weekend around the little bacteria in the dough enjoying the party or not

After reading Jeff V.s page I started fishing the seeds out of my tomatoe sauce, because they are bitter... but explain to a non pizzaholic that you get up at 7:30am on a sunday morning, put the apron on and start looking with a teaspoon in the tomatoe sauce... quite funny I guess.

Looking at the set-ups of all the technicaal geniuses here, I think they all have in common, that it is easy to get the botton done fast, due to the direct heat from the burners, but the challenge is on how to keep the heat flowing from the top to the pizza.I am not so happy with the taste of my crust, i find it is always tasting the same and not so close to a good WFOs taste. Part of the problem is, that i cannot get fresh yeast here, not to mention caputo pizzaria flour nor san marzanos. So instead I am using 10,5% divella pizza flour, which is also unbleached. I add a bit of gluten to bring up the protein to 12%, so I can increase the hydration a bit. I cannot get a good mozz here, so this time i experimented adding some Edamer cheese (I recall the italian pizzamakers in Europe sometimes use it to substitute Mozzarella, when not yet widely available some years back).

My approach for the set-up is:- no modifications on the grill which I cannot reverse- do nothing which could blow the house away. This also includes not to expose me or my expecting wife to an explosion risk (since she is giving birth soon I can understand that she is a bit worried about me lighting a fire in the gas bbq).- move the stone a bit higher and closer to the top lid in order to grab the convection heat there- ignite all the burners to get the max overall heat.- I use a metal strainer to a) lift up the stone and b) to guide the hot air from below around the stone to the top (so much for the theory)- additionally at the left side i have a can (top and bottom removed) on which i have a metal skillet with wood chips and coal to get extra heat from the top and a bit of WFO feeling

Actually the first results seem promising, but i am not 100% satisfied. I think when opening the lid I lose heat to the sides and the front, even i try only to lift the lid so that i can place the pizza on the stone and rotate once.The stone can retain the heat, but maybe it takes too long for the air above the stone to heat up again after i let it go out.I might try to work into the direction you are trying by installing a top and a side wall.

What kind of bricks are you using ? Is this any special material ? I am using a basalt stone, after my Weber pizza soapstone cracked. The basalt is a vulcanic stone and can take and retain heat quite well I think, plus I can get it for 3 USD here ;-), but the stone shops look for the big business, not for a freak buying one stone at a time and DIY stores no have here.

The baking time is around 3 minutes and the top browns ok, but could be faster. Still my crust looks a bit pale, i have to work on the dough mix here. Maybe the yeast took all the sugar, even if it is only 0.08% IDY, but fermenting 20 hours at room temp (24degree C/75 F) with aircon on. The crust i shape not too high and had some air in it, but the bottom still a bit too hard. Here it is quite hot...

Thanks so much for posting what your methods are in making your dough and how your BBQ set-up looks, and what methods you use in your BBQ grill set-up.

It is good your wife understands about your pizza making hobby. I can understand you donít want to expose yourself or your wife to an explosion risk. Your pizza does look very tasty in the way your are experimenting.

There are a lot of technical geniuses on the forum, and usually they agree that getting even top and bottom heat will give you the best bake. I am not one of the technical geniuses on how to accomplish the best bake, but just try different things. As you can see, my ideas havenít always worked out. Opening the lid is a problem in heat loss. I had a few chances to bake in my friends real WFO and there is a big difference in how they bake.

You really donít need fresh yeast to be able to make a good pizza dough. What kind of yeast do you have access to? Some members donít like the taste of gluten added to pizza dough. I personally didnít mind it when I did that a few times. If you want to look at another thread about a member Pizza01(Michael)that used VWG for his doughs since he didnít have the right protein of flour where he lives, there is one at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13197.msg129879.html#msg129879 If you are interested, you could click on his name and see from his past posts all the experimenting he did to find a great pizza dough, with the flours he had to use. Michael became a very accomplished pizza maker.

I am not an expert on stones either, but your pizza stone does look good to me. The bricks I am using are firebricks. I purchased them from a local brick place. They are meant to be used at high heat.

Maybe if you post your BBQ oven set-up on another start up thread, you might get more attention in help. Also if you started another thread about helping with your dough, there might be more members that can help you with that. My thread about my BBQ grill set-up doesnít get a lot of replys, so hopefully someone else with more information than me, might be able to help you, with your set-up and dough.

That looks like yummy pizza to me. Good for you. I wasnít expecting as much success.

I donít know the properties of your stone. It looks rather thick, so Iíd expect the warm up time to be 45 minutes or more. In the interest of safety, youíll want to confirm basalt will hold up at high temperature Ė maybe some internet reading.

The idea to move the stone high in the grill seems creative to me. Iíve not seen, nor considered, that before.

IMO, you are correct that the challenge for grill setups ups is to limit the bottom char and promote the top char. I didnít see the underside of your crust, but if you want more char, Iíd suggest replacing the support strainer with something that does not divert the heat from the underside of the stone directly under the pie. I suspect you are OK with the bottom side and are looking to promote more top-side char. If so, read on.

Iíd take note of the rim char you did get, and where it came from. It appears from one photo that the front of the oven may be where the heat flow came from. (I could be wrong, especially if that pie was just rotated and the back is where the char came from.)

Given that most grills have a vent out the back, Iíd think your best chance to optimize hot airflow over the pie would be to block all the heat coming up the back and sides and force it out the front, around the stone, and exit the back. This is kind of the reverse of what the LBE folks do Ė they flow up the back and out the front. But in your case, the back vent is built-in, and since you cook with the lid closed, a plausible means to get the most heat over the pie would be reversed. I donít know what materials you have handy.

Norma,Thanks for the good hints. Maybe itis better to move to a new thread, I am sorry to clog it up and will start a new one, instead of a hostile take over Thanks for the tips and i will keep you updated...

Dave, thanks you for the valuable input. I will open a separate thread to discuss a bit further.

No need to worry about clogging up my thread. I donít mind what someone posts on my threads. I just thought you might get more answers if you started a new thread. That way, if some members donít read my thread, they might read yours.

Thanks for the site information. If basalt holds up under temperature, it holds up Ė but I didnít see anything in the links that showed it worked in grills. Iím just wanting you and your family to be safe and a big chunk of stone on top of a strainer looked questionable to me.

You might consider a thinner slab. Assuming the properties of basalt are ďin the ballparkĒ with firebrick and cordierite, you probably donít need more than ĹĒ to cook a pizza. Iíve posted elsewhere on this, but for me, I can turn the burners off after the launching the pizza and the retained heat in a ĹĒ thick cordierite stone cooks the underside the same as if I had the underside burners full on. Iím not suggesting you turn off the burners, but a thinner slab should cut the warm-up time.

Dear Dave,All valid points, they are well noted with thanks. Especially the airflow dynamics need a deeper look into as soon as i have got the time. I checked about Basalt stone and it seems to perfectly fit what i am looking for. The stone should not crack at high temps, can take direct heat. It is even used as grilling stonehttp://www.vermontcountrygrillstone.com/2011/05/01/how-to-grill-on-stone/

I think you are right, i should get a thinner one, this one needs quite some heating time. Unfortunately there is no DIY store here. Will try out some modifications, then start a new thread. Have fun.Martin

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Given that most grills have a vent out the back, Iíd think your best chance to optimize hot airflow over the pie would be to block all the heat coming up the back and sides and force it out the front, around the stone, and exit the back. This is kind of the reverse of what the LBE folks do Ė they flow up the back and out the front. But in your case, the back vent is built-in, and since you cook with the lid closed, a plausible means to get the most heat over the pie would be reversed. I donít know what materials you have handy.

Thanks a lot Tampa. Your hint with the airflow really worked for me. This and the use of the available rear burner made the difference. The baking stone held 850F without a problem and has a bit of a porous surface to bake in two minutes. The strainer can be used for its original purpose now